Community forum held for four day discussion

A forum held last Wednesday gave community members a chance to hear first-hand from Clarke administrators about the proposed four-day school week.

Clarke Superintendent Kurt DeVore welcomed those in attendance and explained the purpose of the evening was to gather feedback from the community and to answer questions.

“It’s to talk about, could this work here? Is this something that would work for Osceola, for our Clarke Community School District… it’s information gathering, it’s getting feedback,” he said.

A short slideshow was presented to the audience to share the thoughts behind a four-day week and how it would work.

The “why”

As to the why, DeVore restated sentiments from earlier school board meetings about the need for high-quality teacher recruitment and retention.

“That teacher crisis that we hear about… the teacher shortages, we live that every single day,” he said.

He spoke about the lack of applicants for open positions and the need to be innovative in attracting teachers, something a four-day week could do. This school year in Iowa, 27 schools are operating on a four-day week, including nearby Murray, East Union and Central Decatur.

Along with attracting new teachers, the need to keep those who are presently employed with the school district is important.

“We want our best teachers staying here in Osceola,” DeVore said. “This could be an option - we don’t want them to go elsewhere.”

Three years

If the school board decides to make the switch to a four-day school week, it would operate on a three year pilot program. During those three years, tracking would be done on student growth to see if test scores and grades improved or remained steady; see if there was a decrease in student and staff absences; and seeing if all open teaching positions are being filled.

“When you’re tired and you’re worn down, you get sick. And then you’re out. We don’t have our top-quality teachers in the room, we have a sub coming in,” DeVore said, noting the school does have quality substitutes.

The school board will review data on an annual basis to make sure the four-day schedule is working for all.

Same v. different

Iowa code requires that public schools meet either 1,080 instructional hours or 180 instructional days; Clarke follows instructional hours. In a four-day week, the same minimum requirement of hours would be met.

The school would still focus on each child overall - their academic, social-emotional, physical and behavioral needs, as well as any necessary support needed.

Extracurriculars will also remain the same.

“Our fine arts, our athletics, our clubs, are still going to work hard to make sure that Clarke Pride is there… that’s going to continue to exist,” DeVore said.

Changes would come in obviously having one day less a week. Most schools choose either Mondays or Fridays off, each having their own pros and cons.

The school day would increase by 30 minutes to ensure 1,080 hours are being met without having a later year end date.

About half of the fifth days off would be for teachers to meet, plan and work together to accomplish the things they cannot during the regular day now without impeding on instructional time, the other half mental health days.

Next steps

DeVore said the next steps are to gather more community feedback. A survey in December showed an 83% positive response to interest in a four-day week, but was noted to have been open to anyone and could have been taken more than once. A district-wide digital survey was sent out Jan. 23 that could only be taken once and contained more specific questions.

As part of the forum, attendees were broken up into seven different groups to talk with school board and administration representatives to answer questions and gather concerns. Between the forum and the latest survey, the school board will review the feedback and results.

“We can’t do this without our community, without the support of [everyone]... our school is not successful without our community” DeVore said.

If the decision is made to move Clarke to a four-day school year, the three year pilot program would begin with the 2026-27 school year. At a Jan. 14 work session, Clarke administration requested a decision from the board by the regular February meeting.

Potential calendars

Four potential calendars have been released - two with Mondays off, and two with Fridays off; there are versions for both preschool and K-12.

The potential calendar with Mondays off - which is the day East Union, Murray and Central Decatur take off - show a school start date for K-12 of Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026 and the last day of school May 27, 2027, for 1,084.5 instructional hours. For preschool, the first day would be Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, and last day of May 14, 2027; the current school year is scheduled to end May 28.

There are four Mondays that would have school - Nov. 23, Dec. 7 and 14, and May 24. As the current school calendar has weather days built into it, a four-day week has dates in April and May as potential make-up dates. In the calendar with Mondays off, those dates would be April 12 and 19, May 3 and 17.

About every other Monday would be a teacher in-service day.

In the potential calendar that has no school on Fridays, school for K-12 would begin on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, and end May 27, 2027; total student hours would be 1,080.2. Preschoolers would also begin Aug. 24 with their last day May 13.

There are no Fridays shown that would have school, with about every other week being used as teacher-in service days. Potential weather make-up days would be April 9, 16 and 23, and May 7 and 21.

In both scenarios, the school day would start at 7:40 a.m. and end at 3:20 p.m. for elementary and 3:35 p.m. for middle and high school. Currently, school begins at 8 a.m. for all and ends at 3:10 p.m. for elementary and 3:25 p.m. for middle and high school.

Copies of the proposed calendars are available on the school’s website.